I don’t cook so or bake from me as a
friend you’re gonna get bugs ever since
I was about six years old
I’ve loved insects I loved watching inch
worms inch their way across the leaf the
colors and patterns in butterfly wings
even the red and blue jewels on the
backs of gipsy moth caterpillars to me
they were all wonderful I understand
some of you may not like bugs
but the truth is if all insects were to
disappear tomorrow we would no longer
have the animals that eat them like
birds or frogs flowers wouldn’t be
pollinated so with mousse most of the
fruits and vegetables we enjoy nature as
we know it would be gone
there are beneficial insects all around
us doing battle for us keeping our
gardens healthy we need to learn about
these beneficial insects the good guys
know who they are
and go outside to find them because if
we have a good diversity of those good
guys then we can offset the populations
of the destructive insects that are
hurting even killing our plants these
good guys can really help us keep our
gardens healthy that’s why last April
when I was walking my dog and I came
across two praying mantis egg cases I
felt like I’d won the lottery
praying mantis of predators feeding on
other insects you can use them in your
garden to control pests
instead of using chemical
I started thinking of all the people I
could share them with friends neighbors
even some farmers who were just starting
their Gardens thinking about their
flowers and vegetables they would love
these guys so I took the egg cases home
and I put them in a container with good
ventilation but I kept them in a safe
place outside because I didn’t want them
to hatch before food was available for
them and I checked on them every day a
few months later they hatched and I had
hundreds of praying mantises now when
praying mantis were young you can
actually keep a lot of them together as
long as they’re well said so sometimes I
had tanks with up to 50 mantises living
in them however this meant that cleaning
the tanks became a three-person job and
I enlisted the help of my husband and my
son my son would stand ready with the
new container at the side of the tank
I had a small stick that I lowered into
the tank to transfer the tiny mantises
out now in the more than 20 years that
I’ve been studying insects
I found that praying mantis are very
intelligent in fact I think they even
have emotions you can watch their
behavior and see that they’re processing
information being fearful or cautious or
defensive so to encourage the tiny
mantises to be brave enough to climb
that new stick in their tank I did what
any good motivational speaker would do I
cheered them on telling them you can do
it you’ve got this and it worked
my husband was to keep any potential
escapees at bay by creating a slight
breeze at the top of the tank so the
entire time he was doing this when he
got lightheaded we would stop and take a
break but then we’d be right back at it
we looked ridiculous and to answer
everyone’s question no we don’t have any
video of that precious time in our lives
when the praying mantis were about two
weeks old we started looking for people
who might want them I sent out emails
that again with free to a good home to
the lucky responders I put the mantises
and little snack cups with holes in the
lid and plenty of fruit flies to eat and
that I delivered them in gift bags with
cards that read fragile live insects
handle with care’ my husband even told
his co-workers in Boston that I had an
army of praying mantises did they want
any and they did they wanted them for
their kids to relief in the back yards
they were gonna use them as their own
teachable moments and explain to the
kids that they were good useful bugs out
there it was amazing how many people
wanted them and seeing that positive
response my husband asked the Boston
parks department can we release some
here on the trees and they said yes so
the tree stuff we put them on we’re
mostly Linden’s Linden’s are pollinated
by bees which means we cannot do not
treat them with insecticides but all
summer long they’re attacked by athens
and leaf hoppers any number of pests
that literally drain the strength from
these trees so putting my praying mantis
son was a great idea
but not everybody wants praying mantis
in their gardens praying mantis our
generalist feeders which means they’ll
go after anything that lands or flies in
front of them including butterflies
nature is not always pretty in fact I
don’t put any of the mantises in my own
garden my garden is solely designed to
attract and sustain the entire lifecycle
of the monarch butterfly so prayer
mantis worked well in some situations
but not in all of them the good news is
there are a lot of other beneficial
insects out there I want to encourage
all of you to get familiar with them you
know some already like ladybugs in their
lifetime billion over 5,000 Athens or
dragonflies their favorite food
mosquitoes but they’ll go after other
smaller insects too the other one I love
is the green lacewing they’re so
beautiful and delicate I call them the
fairies in the garden the adult eats
nectar and pollen but the young stage
the larval stage looks like a little
alligator and it’s just as ferocious
gobbling up hundreds of Athens every
week the other one I know you’ll
recognize is a stink bug not the stink
bug that comes into your homes and
hybrid eats in your curtains all winter
this one still stinks but he’s good he’s
called the spine soldier bug he has
soldier in the name you know he’s out
there fighting for you I had the young
stage in my garden this summer no bigger
than an mm didn’t even have his wings
going after a full-grown hickory tussock
moth caterpillar and let’s not forget
about spiders they’re actually arachnids
not insects
but there’s over 3,400 species in North
America
all of them are predators going after
the insects that are harming our plants
so once you’ve gotten to know some of
these good guys and you’re comfortable
recognizing them that I want you to go
out and look for them go in your yards
look at the flowers look under the
leaves look in the leaf litter you can
even look in the trees they’re already
out there in the trenches doing battle
for us we will always have the
destructive insects that’s okay
they’re the food for the good guys and
if we have enough diversity of those
good guys then we’ve achieved a balance
balance is the key to a healthy garden
which will contribute to a healthy
environment and the next time you find
yourself on the Boston Common or in the
public garden take a good look at the
trees especially the Linden’s you might
just see someone looking back at you
[Applause]
[Music]
friend you’re gonna get bugs ever since
I was about six years old
I’ve loved insects I loved watching inch
worms inch their way across the leaf the
colors and patterns in butterfly wings
even the red and blue jewels on the
backs of gipsy moth caterpillars to me
they were all wonderful I understand
some of you may not like bugs
but the truth is if all insects were to
disappear tomorrow we would no longer
have the animals that eat them like
birds or frogs flowers wouldn’t be
pollinated so with mousse most of the
fruits and vegetables we enjoy nature as
we know it would be gone
there are beneficial insects all around
us doing battle for us keeping our
gardens healthy we need to learn about
these beneficial insects the good guys
know who they are
and go outside to find them because if
we have a good diversity of those good
guys then we can offset the populations
of the destructive insects that are
hurting even killing our plants these
good guys can really help us keep our
gardens healthy that’s why last April
when I was walking my dog and I came
across two praying mantis egg cases I
felt like I’d won the lottery
praying mantis of predators feeding on
other insects you can use them in your
garden to control pests
instead of using chemical
I started thinking of all the people I
could share them with friends neighbors
even some farmers who were just starting
their Gardens thinking about their
flowers and vegetables they would love
these guys so I took the egg cases home
and I put them in a container with good
ventilation but I kept them in a safe
place outside because I didn’t want them
to hatch before food was available for
them and I checked on them every day a
few months later they hatched and I had
hundreds of praying mantises now when
praying mantis were young you can
actually keep a lot of them together as
long as they’re well said so sometimes I
had tanks with up to 50 mantises living
in them however this meant that cleaning
the tanks became a three-person job and
I enlisted the help of my husband and my
son my son would stand ready with the
new container at the side of the tank
I had a small stick that I lowered into
the tank to transfer the tiny mantises
out now in the more than 20 years that
I’ve been studying insects
I found that praying mantis are very
intelligent in fact I think they even
have emotions you can watch their
behavior and see that they’re processing
information being fearful or cautious or
defensive so to encourage the tiny
mantises to be brave enough to climb
that new stick in their tank I did what
any good motivational speaker would do I
cheered them on telling them you can do
it you’ve got this and it worked
my husband was to keep any potential
escapees at bay by creating a slight
breeze at the top of the tank so the
entire time he was doing this when he
got lightheaded we would stop and take a
break but then we’d be right back at it
we looked ridiculous and to answer
everyone’s question no we don’t have any
video of that precious time in our lives
when the praying mantis were about two
weeks old we started looking for people
who might want them I sent out emails
that again with free to a good home to
the lucky responders I put the mantises
and little snack cups with holes in the
lid and plenty of fruit flies to eat and
that I delivered them in gift bags with
cards that read fragile live insects
handle with care’ my husband even told
his co-workers in Boston that I had an
army of praying mantises did they want
any and they did they wanted them for
their kids to relief in the back yards
they were gonna use them as their own
teachable moments and explain to the
kids that they were good useful bugs out
there it was amazing how many people
wanted them and seeing that positive
response my husband asked the Boston
parks department can we release some
here on the trees and they said yes so
the tree stuff we put them on we’re
mostly Linden’s Linden’s are pollinated
by bees which means we cannot do not
treat them with insecticides but all
summer long they’re attacked by athens
and leaf hoppers any number of pests
that literally drain the strength from
these trees so putting my praying mantis
son was a great idea
but not everybody wants praying mantis
in their gardens praying mantis our
generalist feeders which means they’ll
go after anything that lands or flies in
front of them including butterflies
nature is not always pretty in fact I
don’t put any of the mantises in my own
garden my garden is solely designed to
attract and sustain the entire lifecycle
of the monarch butterfly so prayer
mantis worked well in some situations
but not in all of them the good news is
there are a lot of other beneficial
insects out there I want to encourage
all of you to get familiar with them you
know some already like ladybugs in their
lifetime billion over 5,000 Athens or
dragonflies their favorite food
mosquitoes but they’ll go after other
smaller insects too the other one I love
is the green lacewing they’re so
beautiful and delicate I call them the
fairies in the garden the adult eats
nectar and pollen but the young stage
the larval stage looks like a little
alligator and it’s just as ferocious
gobbling up hundreds of Athens every
week the other one I know you’ll
recognize is a stink bug not the stink
bug that comes into your homes and
hybrid eats in your curtains all winter
this one still stinks but he’s good he’s
called the spine soldier bug he has
soldier in the name you know he’s out
there fighting for you I had the young
stage in my garden this summer no bigger
than an mm didn’t even have his wings
going after a full-grown hickory tussock
moth caterpillar and let’s not forget
about spiders they’re actually arachnids
not insects
but there’s over 3,400 species in North
America
all of them are predators going after
the insects that are harming our plants
so once you’ve gotten to know some of
these good guys and you’re comfortable
recognizing them that I want you to go
out and look for them go in your yards
look at the flowers look under the
leaves look in the leaf litter you can
even look in the trees they’re already
out there in the trenches doing battle
for us we will always have the
destructive insects that’s okay
they’re the food for the good guys and
if we have enough diversity of those
good guys then we’ve achieved a balance
balance is the key to a healthy garden
which will contribute to a healthy
environment and the next time you find
yourself on the Boston Common or in the
public garden take a good look at the
trees especially the Linden’s you might
just see someone looking back at you
[Applause]
[Music]
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